When your U-M student returns from the holiday break in January, the Michigan Union will soon be open to greet them. Closed since April 2018 for renovations, the refreshed and renewed central gathering place will include new amenities as well as a return of favorite spaces.
New to the Union will be the IdeaHub -- a purposeful space for student organizations and students seeking to get involved to learn and share ideas, to collaborate with others and to practice leadership. It will be a space filled with activity, thoughtfulness, inspiration, and ingenuity. It will be a place where things happen.
Located on the second floor of the Union, the IdeaHub will wrap around a newly enclosed courtyard on the first level to become an inclusive space for student organizations and activities that aims to be a welcoming and encouraging environment for students from different interests, disciplines, faiths, and ethnicities.
“The IdeaHub is a co-working space for student organizations that physically and visually connects to the social spaces on the main level of the Union. It will provide a highly visible and vibrant forum to support student organizations and foster involvement, collaboration, creativity, and debate,” explained Amy White, Director of the Michigan Union and Associate Director of University Unions.
With students leading both the creation of the space as well as design decisions, the IdeaHub will include flexible meeting spaces, movement studios, collaboration booths, and built-in lockers for short-term storage, shifting from the former shared private offices to central gathering, collaboration, and resource space.
The IdeaHub also helps provide functional working space for all student organizations.
“There are over 1500 student organizations on campus, but fewer than 100 had office spaces in University Union buildings. Students were looking for a way to serve all organizations and the IdeaHub opens that space for collective use,” White explains.
In addition to the new IdeaHub spaces, your student will have new retail and restaurant choices, as well as old favorites. Six food partners and five service partners have signed agreements to operate in the Union.
Food partners joining the Michigan Union will be Panera Bread, Sweetwaters Coffee & Tea, MI Burger, Mama DeLuca’s and Blue Market. Panda Express and Subway will return as well. Retail partners include Barnes & Noble, the U-M Credit Union, the U-M Tech Shop (formerly Computer Showcase), PNC Bank ATM, and the Michigan Union Ticket Office (MUTO).
In addition, the building, originally opened in 1919, will include:
- Greater accessibility and inclusiveness for all individuals
-
Enhanced social space on the main level in the enclosed the courtyard for year-round use and a new lounge south off the existing Willis Ward lounge
-
Restoration of architecturally significant portions of the building, including the original windows
-
Improve spaces for counseling and student support services
-
Enhanced meeting space near the main ballroom
The project also includes deep infrastructure renewal such as electrical, mechanical and plumbing system improvements, elevator upgrades, replacement of the roof, restoration of windows, interior finish upgrades on floors one through four, and restroom upgrades.
The Union’s north entrance was also redesigned to become a more welcoming, open and light-infused entrance with an enclosed ADA-accessible ramp.
For more information, visit the ReUnion website.
To help Student Life continue making a difference in students' lives, please consider making a gift.